Monday, February 11, 2013

Keri Lake visits the Alpha Male Diner + giveaway

Author Keri Lake has come to cook for you today. The first book in her new dark urban fantasy/paranormal romance Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1) just released and it looks like there is Lycan on the menu...

For best results, grind the meat before combining all ingredients. Spice to your liking. Blindfold and allow him to simmer for about a half hour on a low flame. Careful not to heat too quickly as this could result in overexcitement and rough play. Gradually increase to a nice steamy boil on a steady burn.

Serve on a bed of winter snow and prepare to melt. Can be reheated multiple times for your enjoyment. Caution: Watch those teeth – he likes to bite.

Makes: one loyal and protective alpha male.

Taste Test

CHAPTER ONE

Ice water.

The frigid sensation sliced through Ayden’s veins, leaving a numb trail in its wake as she stepped through the remains of the abandoned factory—one of many havens for the crack addicts and prostitutes. The old Packard Plant had become no more than a ghostly haunt for tormented souls.

Shitholes were cropping up everywhere, much more rapidly than ever before. Detroit, once a thriving city, brought to ruins. Gray and lifeless like the suffocating overcast that loomed during daylight.

A vile stench assaulted her nose, a potent blend of piss, sex and rotted meat, as garbage crunched beneath her boots. Foundation had collapsed all around where she stood, crumbled as if the building would fold into the depths of hell.

The graffiti spattering the walls gave the impression that gangs were the real threat—‘We don’t die, we multiply.’

Right. Like gangs own any part of this city, anymore. A Beretta, loaded with silver bullets and a silver parrying dagger rested at one of Ayden’s hips, a silver bullwhip at another, as she moved past comatose bodies and decaying corpses.

Feeding grounds, like a bait pile.

Deadened eyes slowly tracked her movement in the darkness, squinting, as though craving the light that hers didn’t need to see. Humans so strung out on drugs, they failed to recognize the half-eaten carrion were once their own kind.

Not that knowing would stop them. They’d apparently chosen to face danger rather than kick their addiction, roaming the streets every night in search of their next high.

Lambs.

They were already dead. Death just hadn’t come to collect yet. The blissful sigh of a hopped-up junkie reached her ears. She snarled her lip. “Enjoy it while it lasts, asshole.” It’d be one thing if they were homeless. Hell, she might’ve fired a warning shot to evacuate.

The homeless didn’t come here, though.

Neither did the police—making it the perfect spot to get wasted and hustle some money.

Shots fired would’ve been nothing more than a momentary distraction before their minds slipped back into their ignorant state of euphoria.

Screw ‘em.

For any other girl, the place promised very bad things—an opportunity for a sadist to live out wild fantasies without ever getting caught.

For Ayden? Humans posed no threat. Their fragile bodies would shred like paper dolls against the work of her hands. Luckily for them, she sought something else to sate her thirst for bloodshed, something far more threatening than their most psychopathic criminal—and she’d tracked it right to the surrounding cornucopia of human flesh.

A thin, black mesh hoodie beneath her jacket concealed her face while the shiny black leather covering her body acted as a beacon in the moon’s light.

Full moon.

It didn’t matter.

Contrary to the fairytales and movies, they didn’t need a full moon to change.

Werewolves, some called them—like a supernatural Bigfoot on the loose. Nothing more than fodder for the tabloids, not to be taken seriously.

Lycans is how those ‘in the know’ referred to them.

The bastards could transform at will. In the middle of the day, if they wanted. Though, like a true predator, they’d evolved throughout the centuries, eluding humans by hunting them at night, catching their prey in their most vulnerable state.

Ayden reached a door in a darkened corner. The stubborn panel held stiff against the push of her palm, giving way only beneath one heave backed by exceptional strength. Beyond, a spiral of stairs wound above and below. Visuals flashed through her mind as she imagined the stairwell bustling with men in suits who passed each other with carefree visages—every one of them ghosts that roamed the destruction.

A quick scan showed no movement.

She tipped her head back and inhaled the repugnant scent the beasts had left behind.

They’re close.

Her feet took light steps, hardly making a sound against the concrete as she descended further into the pit of hell otherwise known as the lycan’s lair.

With each step, she wished her heart would pound wildly in her chest, or that her pulse rate would surge—both human reactions to fear. Neither of them did.

What fragments of her human soul remained had been stripped bare the night the Alexi made her one of their own. Even that, as tortuous as the unrelenting pain that seared through her body while it underwent its transformation, was a memory she could hardly summon anymore. Only a silent blackness dwelled in the place where snapshots of her life would have roamed free, a void that she couldn’t see beyond, separating her present from past.

She’d become one of them: an Alexi soldier. A cold and remorseless killer designed to eradicate in one sweep.

A noise piqued her sensitive ears.

Two flights below.

It could’ve been the skittering feet of a mouse beating against her skull like a base drum.

The thirst for blood moved like a dark storm cloud through her veins, a mix of raw adrenaline and something else—the something that came with her transformation.

Destroy.

Her feet moved on impulse, carrying her closer to whatever it was, rendering it nothing more than a thread-width away from its death.

In the corner of a landing, he sat hunched over on himself, body convulsing.

A grin skated across her face as she approached her first kill of the night.

Soul Avenged (Sons of Wrath, #1)

Release Date: February 6, 2013

Genre: Adult Paranormal Romance/Dark Urban Fantasy

Passion is blind in vengeance and love …Ayden’s suburban home was invaded by a pack of Lycans.

The brutal attack is the only memory she carries of her former life.Now, one motive burns in her soul:

KILL THEM ALL.

The Sons of Wrath—a brood of vengeance-dealing warrior demons—band with Ayden to hunt the Lycans on Detroit’s most deadly feeding grounds.

Kane Walker should’ve been her easiest kill.

Unfortunately, the newly bitten Lycan has something she wants—clues that may finally lay her past to rest. To reach them, she must be willing to submit to the sensual pleasures awakened by his touch.

Time is running out.

In seven days, Kane will become what Ayden despises most. She can halt his transformation but the antidote requires the ultimate sacrifice. As the beast takes hold, Kane becomes more of a threat.

Ayden must choose between her lust for revenge, or surrender to her enemy and discover a horrible truth.

About the author:website-fb-twitter-goodreadsKeri Lake is a married mother of two living in Michigan. She writes paranormal romance, urban fantasy and loves a good, tragic love story. Though novels tend to be her focus, she also writes short stories and flash fiction whenever distraction manages to suck her in to the Land of Shiny Things.

When she isn’t toiling away on plots and protagonists, she enjoys reading, music and travel. If she could create mystical powers for herself, she’d have the ability to flash to anywhere in the world. And if she could flash to anywhere in the world at this very moment, she’d be staring at the ocean from her adirondack chair on the shores of North Carolina.

I loved the excerpt and the cover, my fingers are itching to get to know Ayden, me thinks there be some adventures here :) Thank you for dishing up a tasty treat today. I was wondering if you have an email subscription for your site, would love to follow, although will try to keep up with FB. dz59001[at]gmail[dot]com

Hi Denise! Sorry, I need to put the blog sign up in a more prominent place. You can subscribe to my blog here (right hand side): http://www.kerilake.com/2013/02/06/soul-avenged-launch-day-soulavenged-launchday/

Here you can sign up for the newsletter by entering your address into the Pledge of Souls form (just for fun, ha!): http://www.kerilake.com/about/

I'll move this stuff around so it's easier to find. Thanks for asking!

Thank your for sharing Miss Kari as you are a "new to me" author! I love the excerpt and the cover. Very eye catching. I cannot wait to read it and see where this story goes. Happy writing!!rana.adams@verizon.net

Your cover is the first thing that makes me want to read Soul Avenged. I love kick ass heroines... I'm also a huge shapeshifter story fan, and stories where the author makes her characters suffer...that sounds terrible doesn't it? LOL

The cover caught my eye immediately. I love kick ass women, especially when they are the main character. Add in some supernatural and there must be a hot guy in there, because the recipe sure call for one. Thanks for the great giveaway.